


call

by BabaTunji



Series: Emperor Killmonger: Dark Husbands Verse [2]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cousin Incest, King Killmonger, M/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26213551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabaTunji/pseuds/BabaTunji
Summary: T'Challa and N'Jadaka's middle daughter goes missing and the search takes an unusual turn.
Relationships: Erik Killmonger/T'Challa
Series: Emperor Killmonger: Dark Husbands Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653094
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	call

**Author's Note:**

> The heart is heavy but the muse persists. Thankful for Chadwick. Rest easy sweet prince. 
> 
> -
> 
> Assume everyone is speaking/thinking in some dialect of Wakandan unless otherwise stated. (Thus Mother/Father is gender neutral)

Tamar can’t find Naïm. It’s not a big deal at first. His twin liked to go off alone sometimes, she is probably somewhere dark, listening to music even their aunt doesn’t recognize. So that’s why he doesn’t say anything in the morning. He expects her to turn up like she always does. He doesn’t say anything in the afternoon, when their older sister Zeinab comments on her absence. Doesn’t say anything when their aunty Shuri asks where she is. Aunty probably wanted her to re-do the simulation she failed last week. He wouldn’t be the one to tell Naïm, aunty is looking for her.

He starts to worry though. She didn’t usually miss lunch. Today they don’t have lessons and it’s the only day in the week they have to do whatever they like. But he is also dreading the next time he gets called to do a simulation with aunty himself, so he goes looking for her. She is not in their secret room near the gardens in their family temple. She is not in the special facility where the entire family uses to train. She is not anywhere in the house, he checks twice. Finally, and most worrying, she isn’t responding to his messages. By the time he’s finished checking all the places he was sure she would be, it’s evening time.

Tamar calls their mother.

The king of Wakanda picks up on the fourth ring. Tamar doesn’t bother with the usual greeting. “I can’t find Naïm.”

Mother’s face on his kimoyo display goes from tired exasperation to something more concerned. “When last did you see her?”

“Last night. She was upset, so I left her alone. I thought she was training.” He tacks on the last part even though it’s probably a lie. Naïm hasn’t trained in days, not since that failed simulation.

“Have you checked the—”

“I checked all her usual places twice. Zeinab and Aunty haven’t seen her either.” He also asked the Dora on duty and none of them could give him a location, which didn’t really mean much. One of the first things they learnt as children was how to give the Dora on duty the slip if necessary. His mother nods and he can see through his display he is now calling Naïm. He watches the call go unanswered. Mother’s frown deepens, probably sending a text message before calling again. The second call goes unanswered.

Tamar really hopes Naïm is just sleeping somewhere, or lost track of time and has a good reason for not checking in.

“I’ll call Lamina’s mother. You, go look again.” His mother instructs before disconnecting the call.

Lamina is Naïm’s friend, but Tamar is almost certain they haven’t spoken in a month. It’s why he hadn’t called the Mining Tribe boy himself. He’s feeling anxious enough—maybe he had missed something the last time he searched?—to look again.

He spends more time checking the facility. There were several rooms, maybe she was using the ones they didn’t normally use? It’s empty, like the last time he checked. Not surprising, Zeinab is the only one that used them regularly besides their parents. Their older sister came to the facility religiously when she wasn’t at lessons but today, she had a special event.

His mother calls him, “Have you found her?” Tamar asks, waiting to hear good news.

“No. But Lamina’s mother told me she and Lam talked about going to a show in Kampala today. Did she tell you?”

Tamar stares at the display. If he lied and said yes, his mother would know he’s lying. If he said no, then Naïm would be in deeper trouble because she hadn’t told any of them about this trip. “She wouldn’t go off without anyone knowing.”

Currently it sounds like a lie and his mother’s gaze promises nothing but trouble for when they eventually found her.

“I would hope.” In the background Tamar can hear other voices. He must have interrupted a meeting of some sort.

“Take me with you.” He assumes his mother or someone else would be checking Kampala to see if his twin actually went off without permission.

“No, stay at home. N’Yami will be there soon and your grandmother. I wanted you to—” His mother stops mid-sentence. The voices in the background are louder.

“Oh, for Bast sake—” His mother disconnects the call.

Tamar isn’t sure what just happened, but he calls again and is ignored. He’s about to call a third time when a local alert comes up on his kimoyo display.

‘Mass demonstration in Kampala follow for more updates.’

His heart sinks a bit as he clicks on the alert to see what else is attached. There are pictures, even some short videos. Faces are blurred and it looks like a lot of people. He hopes Naïm isn’t anywhere near this demonstration right now, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

Kampala is the second Wakandan satellite state ever created. It’s a backwoods center for all sorts of things. It is not the sort of place a princess should go. He goes back to his room and finds his day suit. Their father is away on business, otherwise he wouldn’t even be thinking about doing what he’s about to now. He puts the suit on under his regular clothes and then starts in the direction of the facility. There were lock codes on the weapons so they didn’t have access outside of training, but they all knew the unlock patterns and could usually crack it if they had enough time.

That’s where his aunty finds him, she doesn’t even look surprised.

“Stop that! My system has been pinging me for seven minutes now. Honestly, it should not even take this long. Didn’t you pay attention at all to your lessons on authentication patterns?”

He’s not a good liar so he doesn’t try. “Naïm is in Kampala.”

“So, is that why you are making the security system think a toddler is trying to hack it?” She doesn’t look upset at least, just annoyed.

“I want to go get her; Mother is going too.” He can’t stay here with N’Yami and grandmother when his sister is alone doing Bast knows what in Kampala.

“You can help by not making my brother have to kill two of his children tonight, leave the weapons alone.” Her tone is stern but not unkind. She doesn’t look like she’s gotten much sleep. He had noticed it this afternoon but now it’s really obvious.

“She didn’t know there would be a demonstration today.” Naïm just wanted to go to a concert, the sort that would never occur in the capital.

“There’s a reason she didn’t tell you or your parents and it is not because of her music taste.” Aunt Shuri’s tone is cryptic.

“Everyone goes to Kampala once. It’s not a big deal.” Or it wouldn’t be if she had come home when he suspects she planned before being derailed by the protesting.

His aunt quirks a brow, “Have you?” He hadn’t but that didn’t change the fact that Wakandan-born went there all the time.

“No.” If he were Zeinab, aunty wouldn’t stop him. But then if he were Zeinab he would already have the weapons he came for.

“Then not everyone goes to Kampala once.” His aunt’s tone softens just a bit. “Come on, with luck your sister already caught a shuttle out. Save my brother the headache.”

Tamar follows her out of the facility grudgingly. When they get back to the shared family wing, N’Yami and his grandmother are waiting.

“Have they found her yet?” His grandmother immediately questions aunt Shuri and Tamar is struck by the lines on her face, she didn’t normally look this old. 

“Not yet. Someone put down signal blockers, it’s been a mess.”

N’Yami comes walking over, a toy blaster in hand. The five-year-old makes a bee-line for him and he barely braces himself before she’s climbing him like a tree. He avoids an elbow to his face and they tussle for a bit. It’s N’Yami’s usual greeting and the normalcy helps calm him a little.

The toy blaster makes too much noise so soon Aunt Shuri and his grandmother leave the two of them to talk in private. He knows better than to follow, so he’s left entertaining his youngest sister in the main parlor. Which is exactly what he was trying to avoid in the first place. If N’Yami notices anything is amiss she doesn’t comment on it. Much more interested in her toy and telling him about her day. Tamar wishes he could be that oblivious. But then why would N’Yami worry? Grandmother had told her they would handle it. That is enough for a five-year-old who didn’t even see her older siblings most days.

He checks his social feeds obsessively for any updates. He doesn’t try to call their mother again. He can only imagine how angry he must be right now. Hopefully no one had informed their father yet. 

“Tamar, look!” His sister calls but he ignores her to watch another video just posted of protestors on the street. What were they even protesting anyway? His father probably or whatever ‘gross injustice’ is trending on non-Wakandan news groups right now.

“Tamar!—" His sister’s whine is annoying so he looks up. She’s abandoned her toy blaster for the entertainment system display. There is a picture of Naïm on the screen. It’s local news which he always keeps muted on his social feeds so he didn’t see—“Give me that.” He makes a grab for the control in N’Yami’s chubby hands. The five-year-old dashes away before he can get a good grip. The living room display is muted, and he can’t access it with his kimoyo beads. Not even his older sister Zeinab could. That restriction is the result of an incident involving a video with cats that he barely remembers now. He realizes mid-sprint he could just pull up the local news on his kimoyo beads and does so immediately.

_ It has been reported that Wakanda’s own princess, Naïm might be amongst those trapped by the ongoing disturbance in Kampala, Uganda. The 13-year old princess is said to have been attending a concert. Wakandan authorities are seeking any information on her whereabouts. _

He screens past the hundreds of response threads to see if they had any more information. They didn’t. Blessed Bast they would never be allowed to leave the palace proper again. Small mercies their father isn’t in the country right now, though mother has probably already sent him a message. What was Naïm even thinking? What sort of rotten luck did she have that today of all days, there was a mass protest? The local news called it a “disturbance,” but all his social feeds used the word ‘protest’ instead.

N’Yami walks over and offers up the remote control. He accepts it and pinches her cheek, softly before unmuting the living room display. They don’t really have anything to say and he has to mute it when they cut to one of the more conservative pundits.

“Tamar?” N’Yami climbs on to the long chaise he’s been perched on since he tuned to the local news. He answers, “Yes, N’Yami?” He hopes she doesn’t tell him she’s hungry.

“When will Naïm come home?” He’s not expecting that, he wishes she would go back to being oblivious.

“Soon.” He hoped.

“Can I have a snack now? Grandma says I can.” He’s almost certain their grandmother did not. But he’s a little too eager to distract her, food is an easy way.

“Sure.” They walk to the central kitchen pantry together and he lets her take two instead of one. He gets some juice for himself and reloads his feed again. Aunt Shuri said ‘someone’ put down signal blockers. That might be why Naïm had yet to respond. She isn’t ignoring him, just probably stuck somewhere waiting for things to calm down. It would make it harder for their mother to find her but not impossible.

When he and N’Yami walk back to the family room he switches the living room display to a cartoon show for N’Yami. His grandmother comes back to the family room alone. She doesn’t look much better than she had before. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prelude to a larger work featuring Naïm time travelling. I developed most of this world with galaxiaa7. 
> 
> Canon Divergence Timeline  
> BP (2016)   
> Erik = 31 | T’Challa = 36
> 
> Infinity War (2018)  
> Erik = 33 | T’Challa = 38
> 
> Endgame (2023)  
> E = 37 | T = 38 (T'Challa LOSES 5 years)
> 
> Zeinab is born -> (Erik's favorite) in 2025  
> Erik = 39 | T’Challa = 40
> 
> Twins are born in 2027  
> Erik = 41 | T’Challa = 42
> 
> N’Yami is born in 2035   
> Erik = 50 | T’Challa = 51
> 
> This fic takes place in 2040  
> Zeinab is 15  
> Tamar/Naïm are 13  
> N’Yami is 5
> 
> -


End file.
